[12.06] The Game's Concert Canceled After Low Ticket Sales

The promoter SEE worked with to organize a concert featuring rapper The Game cancelled after too few tickets were sold, promoter officials said.

In order to avoid losing money, co-president of Ikon Productions Andy Bilinsky said the concert to be held tonight in Cole Field House was postponed. Details as to when the rescheduled concert will take place and even who will perform in it are still being discussed, Bilinsky said.

Reasons for the lack of sales are yet to be determined, but both SEE and Ikon said they think ticket costs might have played a role. Bilinsky said Ikon did preliminary research to determine what price would be acceptable on a college campus based on the demographics of the campus and the type of concert that would take place, but students didn’t appear to respond well, he said. Ikon even decided to drop student costs by $3 on Nov. 21, but only 60 more tickets were sold between then and the end of Thanksgiving break.

“We really don’t have any idea as to why so few were sold,” Bilinsky said. “We essentially covered each outlet for concert promotion that we could use. All we can believe is that Maryland students weren’t willing to pay for the tickets.”

The decision to reschedule the concert was made in the midst of a series of miscommunictions over the past week. Bilinsky said Ikon claims responsibility for the change of concert plans but added they did so while under the impression The Game’s manager, part of International Creative Management Inc., supported the move.

But, yesterday morning, after the decision had been finalized, Ikon received a letter from ICM saying they did not support the rescheduling.

Despite the lack of prior approval by ICM, both Ikon and ICM benefit from the concert being delayed, Bilinsky said. The alternative would have made The Game look bad by performing in a 10,000 seat venue with less than 400 people watching, he said.
“There was not enough money made back from ticket sales, so we thought that this decision was mutually beneficial,” Bilinsky said. “No promoter can go on with a show with very few tickets sold a week before because there is no guarentee that they will sell enough tickets to offset the costs.”

SEE President Gretchen Dellinger, however, said it is common on the campus for the majority of tickets to be sold in the few days before and, more significantly, the day of the event. This is a popular trend both on the campus and in the hip-hop genre, she said.

Ikon covered all advertising outside the university, primarily by working with radio station WPGC 95.5, who promoted the show on-air and gave away tickets. SEE advertised to five local universities through Facebook, and on the campus SEE members distributed flyers, hung posters, sent messages on the SEE listserv and sent out a press release.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was one of our most heavily promoted shows,” Dellinger said.

Despite the many measures taken to promote the show, only 349 tickets were sold, almost half of which were purchased from non-students.

“We aren’t sure if people at Maryland just aren’t into The Game or what,” Bilinsky said.

Dellinger said tickets for the event could be refunded in full between today and Jan. 13 at the original point of purchase, which is standard Ticketmaster policy.

Dellinger said a successful concert could have helped push the university into the position to do more promoter shows in the future, a position which lets groups like SEE put on high caliber performances for virtually no net cost due to the nature of promoter shows.

“Maryland students just didn’t seem willing to buy tickets. If [The Game] couldn’t do it, it seems that no one else on his level can,” Bilinsky said.

the thing is that most people that are actually in the city of baltimore didn't even know about it, and the school is out in the county so they probably wouldn't have gone anyway. atleast thats what I was told

the thing is that most people that are actually in the city of baltimore didn't even know about it, and the school is out in the county so they probably wouldn't have gone anyway. atleast thats what I was told

he talks about he'll do 5 million and banks wont do one mill....
he claims to have 500,000 people pre-ordering his dvd..whitch is Obivously bullshit

Dudes whole career is based on Other peoples Sucsess..and that a fact...
Dre's sucsess and Passion for getting another compton artist famous is what started
his career...then Dre wouldnt release his album, then dre puts him under 50 cent's supervision to get some hot singles and a Buzz so game could sell....then off of dre and 50's name his album sells...then he gets a Huge ego and acts like some kind of boss...
now his name is never mention unless he disses 50 cent or 50 disses him...
Even with dre production his next album will be a disapointment mainstream wise
nobody gives a shit about game's music or talent...

Game is Robin and his ego made him attempt to batman
so now he is gonna try and attack the joker alone and get his ass kicked